Process of treating acetylene for facilitating its transportation and storage.



: Patented. January 31, 1905.

PATENT. OFFICE,

ERNEST A. LE SUEUR (IF-OTTAWA, CANADA.

PROCESS OF TREATING ACETYLENE FACILITATING ITS TRANSPORTATION AND'STORAGE.

f. SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters" Patent No. 781,009, dated January 31, 1905.

' Application filed June 11, 1904. Serial Np. 212,124. I I

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, ERNEST A. LE SUEUR, a subject of the King of GreatBrita'in, residing at Ottawa. in the county of Carleton and Province of Ontario, Canada, have invented new and useful Improvements in the Art of Treating Acetylene to, Facilitate Its Transportation,

Storage, and Use, of which the following is a specification.

My invention aims to overcome the difliculties hitherto found to be associated with the,

transportation and distribution of condensed acetylene.

Under the high pressures ordinarily associated with liquid acetylene the latter has been foundliable to 'explosionfrom whatever cause. When acetylene gas is compressed into steel tanks, the weight of the latter has been found an insuperable commercial drawback to their distribution. When condensed to the solid or liquid form at low pressures by refrigeration'of' high intensity and protected from avoidable access of heat by lagging, acetylene tends to volatilize too rapidly in proportion toxits total mass, except where the latter is large by comparison, for instance, with what would be needed to supply a household.

My invention presents a method whereby advantage for purposes of transportation and distribution of acetylene may be taken of the facts, on the one hand, of the many hundredby refrigeration and, on the other, of its natfold reduction in its volume when condensed ural condensation of volume under compres- .sion, and whereby the disadvantages above I .mentloned of these two methods are eliminated.

My process consists in condensing the acetylene to the form. of a solid or liquid or of. a'

mixture of the two at a very low temperature (around 100 Fahrenheit below zero) at atmospheric or other comparatively low presstrength are sufficient to accommodate the gas 1 volatilized' from the refrigerated condensed '5 acetylene contained in said vessel, and in leavsolvent or other absorbent.

ing matters in this condition until the said refrigerated acetylene has volatilized. V The said receiver (from which-such acetylene as is thereafter required for use is withdrawn as desired) "thus becomes a. stationary storage-tank for' anyacetylene volatilized 'over and above what may be needed for use prior to the complete evaporation of the refrigerated acetylene.

The difficulty with regard to the wasting of the refrigerated charge is thus eliminated at the same time that that pertaining to the carriage of compressed acetylene in enormously cumbersome tanks is avoided. The need for such an improvement lies in the fact that acetylene alone among gases can explode with great violence when maintained in the liquid condition under the 'excessively high presnary temperatures. i

I mayvpoint out that any method of increassure associated with liquid acetylene at 'ordiing the virtual capacity of the above-mentioned receiver by placing an absorbent in itor of permitting the use of a more easily attained low temperature forthe condensing of the gas'in the first place by the same means may, if desired, be made use of in connection with my process'that is to say, I may transport a refrigerated mixture, sayI'of acetone and acetylene (which on absorption of heat of lowpotential gives off substantially acetylene) and deliver it (or the volatilized portion) to a stationary tank, which .may itself contain a However, the great advantage of sending acetylene out in the solid condition will usually maketheuse of a solvent during carriage unnecessary and undesirable. v A variation of the process descrlbed may be employed as follows: Instead of simply con-- necting the interiors of the transporting vesseland the storage-receiver I may immedi ately deliver the refrigerated condensed acetylene from the cold transporting vessel to the comparatively warm stationary receiver.

Iclaim- 1. The process of effecting. transportation and storage of acetylene which consists in condensing it, at atmospheric'or other comparatively low pressure, to the liquid or solid form frigerated condition and then admitting it to a storage-receiver, of many times the volume of the refrigerated acetylene, possessing a comparatively high temperature, substantially as and for the purposes set forth.

2. The process of effecting transportation and storage of acetylene which consists in condensing it, at atmospheric or other compare tively low pressure, to the liquid or solid form by refrigeration, in transporting it in the refrigerated condition in a suitable vessel and thereafter inallowing it to expand, under pressure higher than that of the atmosphere, to the gaseous condition, into a storage-receiver possessing a comparatively high temperature, substantially as and for the purposes described.

3. The process of effecting transportation and subsequent storage of acetylene which consists in condensing it, at atmospheric or other eomparatively'low pressure, into solution in a solvent by refrigeration, in transporting the solution in a refrigerated condition and then in admitting it, or the gas which rsncce boils off therefrom, to a storage-receiver possessing a comparatively high temperature, substantially as and for the purposes set forth.

L. The process of eli'ecting transporlntion and storage of acetylene which consists in condensing it, under a comparatively low pressure, by refrigeration, in transporting it in the refrigerated condition and then in udniitting it to a storage-receiver containing a liquid or solid absorbent for acetylene.

5. Improved process of effecting distribution of acetylene which consists in preparing it in the liquid or solid form at a selected low pressure by the aid of refrigeration; in transporting it in a refrigerated condition in suitable vessels and then in effecting storage at comparatively high temperatures in stationary vessels of great volume compared to that of the transporting vessels, substantially as and for the purposes set forth.

ERNEST A. LE SUEUR.

In presence of MAUD S. Ln SUEUR, H. BJLE SUETTR. 

